I was overjoyed to learn about plarn some time ago. I was in college (read: no yarn budget), so the idea of making my own yarn out of the plastic bags I already had was an absolute win. I learned the method from this excellent tutorial from RecycleCindy & had loads of fun making durable sling bags & even a garden tote for my mom. Instant hipster street cred!

But, eventually, I got bored. As it turns out, I do almost all my shopping from places with unattractive white bags with rudely bold logos, and I got tired of my projects reflecting that fact.

After a period of dormancy, I was determined to try plarn again, and brainstormed a few ways to improve upon or spice up the process. Several unsuccessful experiments later (let me just tell you now: drop spindle + plarn = curse words), I stumbled upon a darn useful method of stripping logos off & introducing some intentional color into the otherwise bland world of plarn.

First off, I used rubbing alcohol to remove the logo & writing from each bag.

Then I went to town with the permanent markers-- see tutorial post for tips about marker selection if you want to try it yourself

I rolled & sliced it into strips just like in Cindy's directions:

Then looped the strips together & crocheted a groovy self-variegating plarn swatch!

I'm super psyched to try more with this method, even though it is a bit time-consuming. The bags are basically like natural sock blanks, so I'm imagining all kinds of crazy dyeing like zigzags, vertical stripes, polka dots, faux Fair Isles... And for Mother's Day, I'm helping my niece & nephew draw pictures on their bags before we plarn-ify them into a Garden Tool Tote for their mom. Wheeeeee, too much fun!

If you'd like to read more about the recycley roots of this project & some tips for trying it yourself, boogie on over to this here post & enjoy!